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Sunday, May 31, 2015

Mobile Vs. Fixed: While Ericsson that sees "Facebook and 4 Other Apps" (here) in mobile networks, Sandvine sees (in North America's Fixed networks) much higher usage stats for Netflix, and claims that the internet is used to serve Netflix, Google and Facebook.

In its "latest Global Internet Phenomena Report focusing on North America and Latin America. The report is based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus communications service provider (CSP) customers" Sandvine finds that:

Netflix continues to slowly increase its domination of North American fixed networks, accounting for 36.5% of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours

In Latin American, two companies, Facebook and Google, now control over 60% of total mobile traffic in the region

BitTorrent continues to see a decline in fixed access bandwidth share, and now accounts for only 6.3% of total traffic in North America, and 8.5% in Latin America

Netflix’s recent decision to encrypt their service will result in the majority of Internet traffic in Latin America and North America being encrypted in 2016 (see "Sandvine: Netflix Brings us to the Encrypted Age" - here)

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Radware released the "..newest version of its powerful automated web performance optimization and acceleration solution, FastView® 6 .. includes PerfectImage, proven by research to be the preferred image compression method for both higher user satisfaction and faster web page delivery"

By using a Digital Camera Images (DCIM) human vision algorithm, images are carefully compressed using various image compression formats (such as JPEG, JPEG 2000, WebP, and others) so that the final image has less than 1.5% difference vs. the original image which is invisible to the human eye. Another outcome of applying PerfectImage is that the image file size can shrink by up to 80%.

The average compression ratio achieved with PerfectImage is more than 50%. If the average web page payload is 1.8MB and the average image payload is 1.1MB (59%), than applying the PerfectImage algorithm can save 550KB (30%) of payload per page.

We applied the PerfectImage algorithm on a flight reservation commercial site. The magnifying glass shows how the image size on the original web page (before applying PerfectImage optimization) was 1.7MB and after the optimization the image payload went down to 412Kb – a 75% reduction:

".. In addition to PerfectImage, FastView 6 also offers deeper web application acceleration, covering more resources inside each web application page. It is the first to optimize resources embedded in and rendered by JavaScript as these resources are not included directly by the web servers and are normally not optimized. FastView 6 now optimizes these tough to find files to make JavaScript oriented applications render even faster.

The technology applies advanced acceleration techniques to dynamically discover client side application calls, allowing enterprises to overcome the challenge of optimizing web pages that are built on a growing number of resources within scripts running on a client’s browser instead of being native to the server side application code.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Nokia Networks announced it has "solved the complexities of coordinating the dozens of load balancing and traffic steering features available in multi-technology, multi-layered and multi-vendor mobile broadband networks. The purpose of these features is to avoid network congestion by distributing the traffic across different radio network layers.

The Nokia Traffic Steering Manager is the first all-inclusive solution to automatically direct traffic to the most effective radio network layer. This ensures more efficient use of existing infrastructure, that is, an operator can effectively increase the capacity in the network by 10%. The Traffic Steering Manager provides an easy, automated way of managing the multitude of load balancing features available in the networks today reducing related operational effort significantly, up to 70 %.

Nokia’s Traffic Steering Manager is a network-wide system that combines all radio technologies (2G, 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi; macro and small cells) as well as the core network to dynamically orchestrate the network capacity utilization. If the capacity limits are reached, value-based traffic steering, enabled by the Traffic Steering Manager, is vital to ensure the network is used according to business priorities .. On a typical mid-sized network with 32,000 3G and LTE cells, an operator can improve network efficiency, worth two million euros per annum

Centralized solution coordinates a multitude of load balancing and traffic steering functionality in radio networks to use all the capacity available in multi-technology, multi-layer and multi-vendor heterogeneous networks (HetNets)

Traffic is steered according to network conditions. Also other criteria like device capabilities and customer service level agreements (SLA) can be taken into account when planning efficient service delivery and network utilization

Thursday, May 28, 2015

A recent survey by Richard Webb [pictured], research director for mobile backhaul and small cells, Infonetics Research, finds that "service providers across the globe that operate carrier WiFi networks or will do so soon .. expect to significantly increase their access point deployments by the end of 2016 .. a quarter of the respondents expect that by 2016, 26 percent of their access points will be Hotspot 2.0-compliant to enable seamless roaming among WiFi networks and between WiFi and cellular networks"

“Revenue generation has become a key driver of carrier WiFi deployments. Not only does Hotspot 2.0 support integration of WiFi with mobile and fixed networks, but it supports the creation of new revenue models for WiFi services”. Says Richard.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Allot Communications announced that "Allot WebSafe Personal is powering Vodafone Germany’s newly launched Secure Net offering, a network-based Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) solution for mobile users. Through full integration with the Allot Service Gateway, Allot WebSafe Personal enables Vodafone Germany to rapidly roll out value-added web security services including anti-malware and parental control that increase customer loyalty and generate incremental revenue. Vodafone Germany’s small and medium-sized business (SMB) and enterprise customers are also served by Allot’s SECaaS solution, which protects user endpoints and enhances business productivity" (see also "IFA 2014: Secure Net – effective protection against internet threats" - here).

Vodafone's SecureNet service is also available in Portugal, Italy and Romania. Allot confirmed that they all use the same solution, which is based on Optenet technology, a long time partner (here) that was recently acquired by Allot (here).

"Any broadband operator can deploy Allot WebSafe Personal in multi-tenancy mode, which allows consumers to customize their own security settings, or in a single-tenancy mode that offers a standard set of security features for all users. The service also offers on-demand reporting, enabling users to generate their own reports that outline online activities in easy-to-read graphs".

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

A post by Saar Gillai [pictured], SVP and General Manager, Communications Solutions Business, HP announces that "HP has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ConteXtream, a provider of OpenDaylight-based, carrier-grade SDN fabrics for NFV, and a current HP OpenNFV partner.Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, ConteXtream offers solutions that allow service providers to create a more flexible and programmable network through an SDN/NFV model. ConteXtream’s open SDN controller platform complements HP’s NFV expertise and telecommunications and IT experience.

After the transaction closes, ConteXtream will become part of HP’s Communications Solutions Business. ConteXtream’s current CEO, Chairman, and co-founder Nachman Shelef will continue to lead the ConteXtream business within HP and will report to me".
ConteXtream was founded and is based in Israel. The local press estimates the acquisition price in the Tens of Millions of USD. Comcast and Verizon are among the investors, along a number of VCs.

Pankaj Doval, reports to The Times of India that "Vodafone, India's second-biggest mobile operator [see chart below for March 2015 data], has refused to follow Bharti Airtel in launching a zero-rating platform [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here] , the decision coming at a time when telecom regulator Trai and the Department of Telecom (DoT) are looking into the entire gamut of issues related to net neutrality.

Sunil Sood, [pictured] , CEO, Vodafone India said: "We are waiting for the rules .. Vodafone is a supporter of net neutrality and does not believe in "blocking" or "throttling" the internet .. We are pro-net neutrality... we do not block the internet or direct the internet." Asked to comment on the criticism of Airtel Zero plan, he said, "I believe it's a trivial matter. It was just a price plan .. applications offering voice communication facility — such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber — should follow the same regulations as mobile operators" [see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here and "Airtel wont Surcharge VoIP; TRAI: "not in accordance with net neutrality, it was not illegal" - here].

Monday, May 25, 2015

Thomson Video Networks announced that its "ViBE® VS7000 multi-screen and HEVC encoder was chosen by Vodafone Spain and Valencia Football Club for Spain’s first live trial of an LTE Broadcast network on May 17. Vodafone Spain and Valencia CF used the ViBE VS7000 to distribute five simultaneous channels of live HD content to fans’ mobile devices in Mestalla Stadium during Valencia CF’s last Spanish League match against Celta de Vigo"Related post - "Vodafone LTE Status: Traffic, Video, Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE, Video Broadcast" - here.

"As an eMBMS-ready solution, the ViBE VS7000 provided the video encoding technology for converting the HD content to mobile formats during the trial. Offering a full IP video solution tailored for Web TV and OTT service delivery, the ViBE VS7000’s built-in support of MPEG-DASH, integration with eMBMS, and rich interfacing capabilities, made it the perfect choice for this eMBMS LTE Broadcast solution"

"Vodafone Spain’s successful LTE Broadcast trial delivered exclusive video content to Valencia CF fans in the arena via a new application on their mobile devices. Designed to enrich fans’ enjoyment of the football match, the content was tested using the 4G network infrastructure that Vodafone has deployed in the stadium and delivered in real time over five separate HD channels".

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Aptilo Networks announced that "INWI, the third largest telecommunications operator in Morocco, has selected Aptilo Networks and Smartcom for a major upgrade to “Wifi7dak,” INWI’s public Wi-Fi service. The upgrade will increase bandwidth, support network expansion and add new payment functionalities.

INWI has deployed the Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP) .. Mobile users can logon to the service using an app developed by Smartcom and available in the INWI online marketplace. The app offers the same functionality as a branded web portal (also available) while also providing INWI with valuable analytics and more granular control over the Wi-Fi service.

Alepo's Service Management Platform

INWI is part of Zain Group, a leading mobile and data services operator with a commercial footprint in the Middle East and Africa"

Saturday, May 23, 2015

A recent survey by Procera Networks (responded by 540 consumers - 30% from the U.S., 35% from Europe and 35% from the rest of the world)finds that 60% feel they "don’t have continuous high-speed coverage".

Other findings:

75% stream video on mobile devices several times per week with 80% expecting this to increase in the future and 70% rating it very important to have good quality video streaming

But 90% experience video quality problems every day

Procera finds this both "surprising and troubling":

Surprising because "a combined 90% rated their worst experiences as falling into only two categories: poor video quality; and basic connectivity/ coverage problems, and despite the combination of high consumer expectations and poor experiences with mobile coverage and video quality, a combined 85% of them never, or rarely, call customer service"

Troubling "considering the trend towards a mostly-mobile lifestyle that is taking place globally".

Friday, May 22, 2015

Openet announced that "Japanese systems integrator NTT Advanced Technology Corp. (NTT-AT) is its latest reseller partner. The deal will extend Openet’s reach into the NTT Group and significantly enhance its commercial footprint across Asia. NTT-AT, which represents the technological core of the NTT Group, will re-sell Openet products and solutions to all subsidiary operators within the NTT Group". Openet updated me that "We have not deployed within the NTT Group as of yet but the re-seller agreement was only signed this month announcing the partnership. On the back of Openet’s successful trials within NTT-AT’s NFV environment and Openet’s virtualization expertise we expect this to change in the coming months" [see related post - "T-Mobile [Austria] Selected Openet's Virtualized Solution" - here].

"NTT-AT chose to partner with Openet after successfully trialling a series of Policy and Control functions across NFV environments. By integrating solutions where NFV techniques are applied to OSS/BSS enables NTT Group to deliver on the promises of NFV, such as system agility, faster time to market, reduced TCO, increased elasticity, and greater service availability. Following the successful test, NTT-AT will look to roll Openet’s proven virtualised BSS technology out across the NTT Group.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Amdocs announced "new communications-specific applications that allow service providers to aggregate data from multiple marketing, network and customer care sources and generate business and customer insights with actionable recommendations..

Amdocs' new big data actionable analytics applications:

Amdocs High Definition Marketing Analytics accesses the large volumes of usage data, web surfing trends, social feeds and care channels to help service providers transform the practice of customer management and upselling by using dynamic micro-segmentation for improved targeting and contextual analytics to offer customers the most appropriate new product or services. This includes multi-channel engagement and interfaces into the service provider's product catalog and campaign management systems.

Amdocs Deep Network Analytics provides a holistic set of network insights from the combination of radio access feeds,deep packet inspection from the network, and customer value parameters from business support systems. The network suite helps service providers to more effectively target their network capital expenditure towards more valuable customers, improve the connectivity experience, identify network issues before they occur and obtain a deeper understanding of the network factors that drive customer satisfaction.

Amdocs Consumer and Business Satisfaction Analytics spans a wide array of data sources which allows executives to break down the siloed approach of different business units in order to assist business managers understand what drives customers' Net Promoter Score (NPS) and resolve issues before they impact customer satisfaction. These analytics also improve the performance of the call center and self-care capabilities helping to deliver an optimal customer experience.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

eVolution Networks announced that "Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary IES Holding, and GE Ventures have invested $22.5 million in eVolution Networks.
eVolution Networks' Smart Energy Solution is a software-based solution that analyzes the mobile network's traffic needs and adjusts the use of the network's resources based on real-time demand from subscribers. This adaptive and unique approach to managing the network's resources has been deployed by Tier-1 operators such as Telefonica Group and has proven to save millions of dollars annually on energy bills".

An Operations & Maintenance Interface provides smart user interfaces, including graphical, web-based and command line, giving operators a wide range of tools to analyze system operations across the network, allowing them to have full visibility and control around the clock.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

So, the FCC's"Separating Fact from Fiction" statement saying that "The Order doesn't reduce broadband investment" (seeFCC's Net Neutrality: No Price Regulation; Won’t Reduce Investments - here) was correct, at least for AT&T - but probably because of other reasons.

Matthew J. Belvedere reports to CNBC that "AT&T chief Randall Stephenson[pictured] said Monday the new FCC net-neutrality rules will be changed by the courts or Congress. Under this operating principle, he said the company is moving forward with $18 billion of broadband investments.

"We have seen the way the rules came out, ... and as we read those rules we do believe they are subject to modification by the courts" or by Congress, Stephenson said on CNBC's "Squawk Box"

"So we've said we're going to invest around $18 billion this year. That will allow us to deploy a wireless broadband solution to 13 million homes around the U.S.," he said. "That compares to about $22 billion last year." If you don't see the video below, try here

Monday, May 18, 2015

ZTE announced that it has "successfully demonstrated a new OAM (operations, administration and management) solution based on SDN architecture today at the Broadband & TV Connect Asia conference in Singapore, showcasing industry-leading capabilities to help operators manage their mission-critical networks.

DSL remains the predominant broadband service delivery mechanism, with more than 60% of the world’s broadband service delivered using this technology. During 2015, many DSL operators will begin to migrate to support G.fast, a DSL standard for local loops that improves broadband service performance over copper by providing speeds that exceed 100Mbps.

As a consequence of making this upgrade, operators will need to revisit their broadband remote access servers/broadband network gateways (BRAS/BNG) infrastructure to accommodate the speed increases they are planning to deliver to their customers.

Support for PPPoE is an enhancement of the SD-BNG platform’s current IPoE support, and includes support for IPv6 and multicast.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Joseph Waring reports to Mobile World Live that "Japanese operator KDDI’s push over the past year to boost WiFi offload has resulted in a sharp increase in the amount of data moved off macro sites as well as huge savings in wireless capex".

KDDI started with its offloading project more than 4 years ago, announcing its plan to deploy Ruckus' 120,000 Wi-Fi access points (here). They now have 3,000,000 access points. At the end of March 2015, KDDI had 43,478,000 mobile subscriptions.

Fumio Watanabe [pictured], chairman of KDDI’s R&D Laboratories, spoke at BROADBAND ASIA, SINGAPORE and said that "WiFi offload was stuck at about 30 per cent three to four years ago when users faced frequent connection issues with WiFi and because flat-rate plans didn’t give them much incentive to use WiFi. It was only after the company distributed three million free WiFi access points that the percentage jumped from 30 per cent to 57 per cent .. We hit the 57 per cent target last fiscal year, which ended 31 March, and aim to expand the offload to 65 per cent this fiscal year, which will further reduce our LTE capex”.

Source: KDDI 2014 annual report

Watanabe told Mobile World Live that "with more than half of its macro traffic offloaded to WiFi, its LTE capex has dropped by a similar percentage".

Source: KDDI 2014 annual report

See "KDDI aims to offload 65% of mobile data to WiFi this year" - here.

Friday, May 15, 2015

A recent article by Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading, quotes Chris Emmons [pictured]. Director, Network Planning, Corporate Network & Technology, Verizon from a presentation made at Light Reading Carrier SDN Networks - about "Having a standard version of SDN is "a prerequisite" to deploymentbecause Verizon needs to be sure that whatever it deploys can interoperate not only with other pieces of its network but also future networks". Verizon, with "its key technology partners" - Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper Networks and Nokia Networks" announced recently its plan to transform its netwrok to SDN control (here).

Mr. Emmons agreed with Heavy Reading's analyst Sterling Perrin [pictured] that "there are almost too many different deployment options and evolving standards today for Carrier SDN. So while Verizon wants to move forward as quickly as possible with the strategy announced in April, there are still key issues to resolve .. Even if we can't get to commodity hardware, however, standards are important for interoperability and so we can present APIs so the network can be programmable".

Indeed, Verizon announcement mentioned that "to enable its network vision, Verizon and its technology vendors have co-authored a comprehensive SDN network architecture document". However, the document is nowhere to be found on Verizon's site. When I contacted Verizon's media relations, The answer I got was "At this time the SDN network architecture document is not available to the public. It’s only available to those technology vendors we are working with on SDN".

Thursday, May 14, 2015

A recent research by Shira Levine [pictured], research director for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research finds that the "worldwide subscriber data management (SDM) market grew 29 percent in 2014 over 2013, to $1.4 billion, fueled by operator demand for voice over LTE (VoLTE) and subscriber analytics .. momentum around big data and analytics has the potential to have an even more significant impact on the SDM market, as operators seek to break down the data silos that exist within their organizations and better leverage subscriber data to improve the customer experience and drive additional revenue"

Other findings:

"Operators are looking to deploy subscriber data management (SDM) as a centralized subscriber data repository that can be integrated with multiple front-end applications potentially from multiple vendors

Virtualization of front-end applications such as home subscriber server (HSS) and policy and charging rules function (PCRF) are well underway, and virtualization of the backend SDM platform is following suit, but concerns about reliability, availability and security persist"

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

ConteXtream announced that "Orange Silicon Valley (OSV), a subsidiary of Orange has teamed up with ConteXtream in using and testing Contextream’s ContexNet carrier-grade SDN fabric.

ContexNet is part of OSV’s NFV/SDN testbed for creating a solution that virtualizes Gi-LAN services and provides network interconnectivity and visibility with subscriber-level granularity".

Christos Kolias [pictured], senior research scientist and principal of the Netsquared Studio at OSV said: “ConteXtream could be a great partner as they have a history of helping carriers seamlessly transition to virtualized network. By leveraging ContexNet, we can create a programmable network and work with best-of-breed vendors for various network functions to quickly introduce new services while easily managing the network.

This is part of our innovative E2E, integrated NFV/SDN testbed with the goal to enable us, our partners and customers to showcase solutions and potentially for third-parties to test theirs.”

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Procera Networks announced that its "Network Application Visibility Library (NAVL) has been selected by Savvius .. to deliver real-time, application-aware network capture and analysis for the latest versions of its Omnipliance hardware and OmniPeek software solutions.

Visualizing, analyzing and troubleshooting performance bottlenecks – Savvius embeds Procera’s NAVL software engine into all of its products: Omnipliance hardware, OmniPeek software and the recently introduced Savvius Vigil security forensics appliance. This integration allows its customers to classify applications in real time and gather information to better understand what is going on in the network.

"So first of all, the security additional enhancements that we have on our platform. The Security-as-a-Service solutions are coming on top of our DPI and the basic service gateway capabilities. Some of the wins that I mentioned earlier together with Optenet, we delivered security services on existing platforms that were deployed there in the market with existing customers.

However we did win some new customers together, leveraging this advantage that we have. In these projects, we competed against the security providers and not against DPI players, including a major deal that we won last quarter together with a tier-1 operator. We mentioned that in one of our press releases. And that project was purely about Security-as-a-Service, and we competed against other security providers and not against our traditional DPI competitors"

we divide our VAS category between four groups; Security, Monetization, Analytics and Optimization. During the quarter, the monetization and security categories were leading followed by optimization and analytics, similar to the ranking in previous quarter .. Monetization and security accounted for 70% of our VAS bookings. We continued to view VAS as our main business driver in the coming years, with key strengths coming from the security and monetization categories

During the quarter, we had one 10% customer [in 2014, Allot derived 44% of its total revenues from two Tier 1 mobile and fixed operators - here]

Sunday, May 10, 2015

In 2011, Google announced PageSpeed, a new optimization service, bringing CDN-like benefits to small web sites owners developers (see "Google Optimizes Web sites and Brings CDN Service to the Masses" - here),

Apparently, this was not a huge success, and Google annouced recently that "After 4.5 years of service, the PageSpeed Service team regretfully decided that the time had come to re-focus their efforts elsewhere and on 5th May announced that PageSpeed Service will be turned down. If you are using PageSpeed Service, you must change your DNS before 3rd August 2015 or your site(s) will become completely unavailable on that date."

Google suggests on of the following alternatives:

Provider Hosted PageSpeed - Many web hosting providers already integrate PageSpeed. If you are using such a web hosting provider, check your provider’s documentation. It may be as simple as checking a box in your provider’s control panel.

Server side modules - There are PageSpeed modules for many common web servers. If you run your own web server, you may wish to install one of these.

Apache - Google has developed the open-source Apache module mod_pagespeed. Pre-built binary modules for Apache 2.2 and 2.4 are available. For more information, click here.

Nginx - Google has also developed a plugin for Nginx. Due to the nature of Nginx, it must be compiled from source. You can read the instructions here.

IIS - The folks over at WeAmp have a commercial port of PageSpeed to Microsoft IIS. You can learn more about it at www.iispeed.com.

Apache Traffic Server - WeAmp has ported PageSpeed to Apache Traffic server. More information, including build instructions, can be found at www.atsspeed.com.

OpenLiteSpeed - OpenLiteSpeed supports a PageSpeed module that you can compile and load into your webserver. Please see their instructions here.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Following my yesterday's post on Amdocs' PCC deployment at Linkem (here), a friend sent me a presentation delivered by the Italian MNO' CTO, Rino Buccio [pictured], at the Policy Control 2015 event, that took place in Berlin last month.

Here are some of the slides, showing the challenges of providing "Residential Broadband Internet Wireless Access For Consumer and SOHO" in a "Copper Free Zone", and the overall solution for a dynamic, QoE controlled, LTE based, service.

The architecture includes Allot Communications' DPI device that analyzes flows and maps them into one of Linkem service classes (such as mail, FTP, streaming, Gaming and VoIP), controlled by Amdocs' PCRF.

Allot and Amdocs are long time PCRF-DPI partners, since the days of Bridgewater Systems, the origin of Amdocs' PCRF.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Amdocs announced that "Linkem, an Italian provider of wireless broadband services, has selected an Amdocs virtualized network control solution to support the company's transition from WiMAX to LTE, and provide subscribers with a superior data experience based on differentiated service quality for high-bandwidth content.The pre-integrated, virtualized solution combines Amdocs Policy Controller, an industry-leading policy control (PCRF) solution [see "Amdocs Announces Virtualized PCRF" - here], with Amdocs Home Subscriber Server for dynamic subscriber management. As a result, Linkem can deliver application-specific quality of service (QoS) to improve subscribers' end-to-end experience with streaming HD video, voice over IP, gaming and other data-intensive multimedia applications.